“I feel lousy should I blame Tacrolimus/ Prograf?” The viewer went on the add “I feel fatigued, upset stomach, headaches, overall drained.” Depending on your symptoms probably yes, Tacrolimus Or Prograf Can Make You Feel Lousy. Even though Tacrolimus is one of the most important drugs we take post-transplant it can be the most problematic. More times than not despite the symptoms it is a necessary evil. Tac / Prograf is very important in helping to adjust your immune systems so you don’t reject your new organ. If your symptoms match some of the symptoms listed above you are probably about average. However, call your doctor right away if you notice any of the following side effects: Allergic reaction: Itching or hives, swelling in your face or hands, swelling or tingling in your mouth or throat, chest tightness, trouble breathing. Change in how much or how often you urinate, painful urination, bloody urine. Confusion, weakness, uneven heartbeat, trouble breathing, numbness in your hands, feet, or lips. Dizziness, lightheaded, fainting. Fast, slow, or pounding heartbeat. Fever, chills, cough, stuffy or runny nose, sore throat, body aches. Headache, vision changes, tremors, seizures, tingling or numbness. Increased thirst or hunger. Rapid weight gain, swelling in your hands, ankles, or feet. Skin changes or growths. Swollen glands in your armpits or groin. Unusual bleeding, bruising, or weakness. Weakness on one side, confusion, clumsiness, trouble thinking clearly.
Is it actually possible that this tiny little pill could be making me feel so crummy stay tuned and we’ll talk about just that well hey folks i do appreciate you being with me today on the transplant helper podcast slash youtube video series my name is jim moreau and yes today we’re talking about pro graph or attack your lemus and it’s based upon basically a facebook
Post i saw just a few hours ago that i really wanted to expand on just a little bit and talk about because there’s one person on a facebook group a heart transplant group that i’m a member of who’s complaining of having some rather terrible side effects based upon taking the medicine in one sense but mainly based upon her doses being raised from what it was maybe
Even a few days to go so let me just read her post as best i can and then we’ll go off of that here’s what she says anyone feel like tank row that’s take her lemus could be making them feel lousy and then she has a few dots and dashes fatigue upset stomach headaches overall drained feeling when i was just on two milligrams twice a day she said i was feeling fairly
Good once they increased the dose to three milligrams a day i started feeling lousy again at my lower dose of tack row my tack girl level was marked at two point two once i began the higher dose i started feeling crummy again nine months out so she’s nine months out post heart transplant she’s telling us that she wants to two milligrams twice a day she felt okay
Now that she’s up to three milligrams twice a day she feels lousy crummy both of those words i think are used in here and so let’s address a few things here number one you being just nine months out of transplant if they found the level that you say here that 2.2 of a tank level which is only two point two that’s why they moved you from two milligrams to three
Milligrams most of the time at every transplant center is different they have different protocol they have different standards in which they follow but most of the time most transplant centers would like someone who’s under a year out to maintain their tanker limits level they change it pretty quickly by the way but to maintain that tranquila misil at between ten
And twelve and i can remember always nailing mine home right at eleven all except for one time it seemed to be a little bit we made an adjustment had to go right back where we were but mine’s been nailed pretty much all the while at 10 to 12 but primarily right there at that 11 march so if yours is just 2.2 i’m glad they caught the amp and i’m glad they’re trying to
Increase that but yes that increase which is basically increasing you 1/3 of the more medicine actually twice a day is going to make you feel like this just as you listed fatigue with upset stomachs and headaches and overall feeling of drained especially a lot of times one of the drugs that you take along with that most times that gets all the credit is going to be
Called prednisone i’ve already done two different videos on prednisone i’ll link here and linked down there and the show notes when one of which i called the devil’s drug no doubt prednisone makes us feel terrible once you feel terrible but i think in one sense prednisone may just kind of get a little bit of a bad rap that is that there are probably other drugs that
Contribute to all the symptoms that you put on or push a home to prednisone is such as this one program slashed anchor lemus brings on very similar symptoms feeling overall drains feeling having headaches feeling and that she doesn’t list it here but dizziness some weakness and all that can come about from either prednisone or pro graf but in this case i think you
Might be dealing with pro graph now once your level gets too high right now it’s too low at two point two i would say but once it gets too high you’re gonna be back to dealing with with tremors you know just shaky hands just shake and shake and shake and sometimes i describe as people it’s like my inner chuck it wasn’t always what could be seen like looking at my
Hands or arms or ever it was what i could really feel on the inside it’s like if you had poured very slowly poured a glass of coke or sprite or something like that some carbonated water into my body it would just seize up and blow out because there was so much i felt like going on on the inside needing to get out and program does that as well as take your lemus
Doing that but now let’s think about some things or at least look at some things what i’ve done here and i’ve just got my device here in front of me to kind of look over at a few websites the bankers are pro graph the ones who actually put it out in tach your limits too to see what they say the side effects are and see if there’s gonna be any similarities well
If you look at it from one perspective they actually claim and i’ll read through most of these they actually claim that one who’s on pro graph yes will experience a change in how much or how often are painful they urinate will find themselves confused weakness the uneven heartbeat trouble breathing numbness and the hands and lips dizziness lightheadedness all-out
Fatigue running fast slow or pounding heartbeats fevers chills stuffy noses sore throat body aches headaches tremors seizures even rapid weight gain and your hands and ankles again prednisone would probably have gotten the blame for that but this could be doing it skin changes and/or growths swollen glands and your armpits you’re growing or i would even end to
That right in here underneath the neck i noticed that on myself unusual bleeding or bruising weakness weakness on the one side of the other confusion clumsiness trouble and clear thinking i’m all over that one and then down here at the latter part of you could also notice diarrhea constipation nausea vomiting joint pain or back pain now i won’t take time to go
Back through all of these but this kind of compares to the list that you had and we’ll look at both of your lists for me personally and for many many many of the patients that i deal with face to face i would say the vast majority of us experienced many of these maybe not all but many of these symptoms that they even own up to to produce all that subsides as
Medications come down as though should just come down things get better but let me add a little bit to this i’m gonna go back then we read the list that was their official list of what they claim happens if your own program and by the way i always say what they claim is probably gonna be less than what you experience when you go back over to what was being said
In the original post miss smith she said that she was fatigued yes that’s on the list that she had an upset stomach yes headaches yes she felt drained yes so basically all of your symptoms and i’m scrolling down through the rest of this little text here people you know we’re commenting back fairly quickly basically all of them are saying one or two things they’re
Either saying absolutely that’s me that’s how i experience it it’s bad or a few are saying hey i’ve got that going on too i just didn’t realize who to blame or what to blame so now that i know that it’s just this little bitty tan and white creep i know who to blame but guess what you can’t get rid of this guy this medication right here i’ve got mine happens to be
The generic so it’s tank your lemus that’s the little bottle name on there tacky limas also known as program is the most important medication you take hands down now there will be others you may take a form of my four tic or micro phenolate that will run right inside of this one you may take other things along with that such as a val site which is a very expensive
Antiviral medicine that you could take from time to time be important but as far as stopping rejection stopping rejection you need this guy right here you need the blue guys which is my for decor michael finley and you need another little white pill in this model which is your steroid i’m off steroid right now but i’m not crazy enough to throw them away if i get
Into trouble i’ve got steroids to take to help me to get past any mild rejection so you kind of have to take care of yourself nonetheless yes to answer the question could how could anyone have birthday is anyone having feeling lousy with fatigue and upset stomach and headache and drain feeling and they seem to have associated that with an increase in tact yes again
Your increase in tact i think was needed because i think a two point two level it’s way too low they need to get you up at nine months you need to be between nine and twelve they’ll bring you on down farther as you get maybe like a year year and a half out of two years but right now you need to be on a pair in the middle so very low i hope they get your tank level
Up unfortunately some of the symptoms are going to come along a little bit worse while you’re getting up let me add one more thing to this this so extra research i did but we do need to keep in mind when we’re taking tak row you know if tak row would prevent me from rejecting my heart if all i knew was hey if i take one tak row it’ll prevent me from objecting my
Heart or take to tak rhodes that’ll work that much better why wouldn’t we want to just shove a handful of tak row in every day when we get in a dangerous situation and make sure our hearts don’t go into rejection and i’m more fine by the way this medication is used for almost all organ donations so heart lung liver kidney pancreas eyes everybody takes tak row at
Some point to some level but if that’s all that it would do you know give me the upset stomach make me lightheaded make me confuse make me all the things i just listed a couple of times could i bear with it yes but let me give you some other stuff here’s what it says also happens this medication causes the following problems listen to this a higher risk of infection
I think that what you’re trying to beat a higher risk of cancer and skin cancer and lymphoma and i don’t know if i’ve ever said this on the show but i want to say it today that about 80% of transplant patients who die within the first three years now mark it down the first one to three years 80% transplant patients who die in the first three years do not die because
Their organ failed they die because they got cancer and and typically some skin cancers some treatable cancers but they ultimately would die because they got skin cancer now what do you do things saw better throw this program stuff throw it out i don’t want it no you have to have it it’s life-saving but there’s a balance right there so cancers can be a part of
That problems with your blood pressure are definitely a part of that changes in heart rhythms are a part of that changes in your diabetic state you know a lot of when we come out of transplant immediately we’re almost completely diabetic they’re giving us so much program pumping into it’s that steroid that it’s basically just throwing everything out of whack and
We become temporarily if not for a long time diabetic our sugar’s go through the roof and we have to have that treat it maybe with some insulin maybe if you’re bad enough you get shots in your stomach that’s a lot of fun try that out but nonetheless these are all symptoms nervous system disorders which i think would go along with anxiety and confusion and that
Sort of thing but nervous system disorders overall that can stick kidney problems this is why every time you go to the doctor and they go to check your program level they’re not checking program us to say okay do we have him or her out of ten so their organs protected they’re saying that we have him and heard of ten so that their organs are protected so they’re
Not at say a 14 when their kidneys are being put out because there’s a fine line there between being able to help maintain the organ they’re trying to maintain but going a little bit too high in damaging other organs particularly the kidneys and so they got on her kidney promise anemia low red blood cell counts that’s why right here in my bag i don’t know if i
Can’t waste too much time on you but look right here you see the back of my head for a while right here my bag i keep a good old-fashioned dose thing dude this way man a good old-fashioned dose of iron pills good old iron pills and guess what a good ol arm pill duty a good old iron peel tied in with some good old magnesium and some good old tackle amos uh he’ll
Probably help you drop about thirty pounds i mean really not that you want it but you’ll feel like you’ve got a virus for a while let’s just say it lightly that way so anyway it can also cause high potassium to be in your blood which potassium has to get very high very very high to be a problem but if it gets too high or too low that has a lot to do with kind of i
Call it the go-go juice to keep your organs moving especially the heart and stuff you really need it to be there if it gets too low then the those muscles is all they are they’ll start kind of cramping and see you i have a problem like a football player on the field might eat a whole pickle or he might eat a bunch of bananas and such high and rich potassium foods
To try to recover from cramps and finally gastrointestinal problems including holes in your stomach or your bowel or there and this is the drug now you’ve got several others but this is the drug that always suggests wearing sunscreen wearing sunscreen you gotta wear your sunscreen don’t wear you know this little cheap epp stuff that you don’t want to be seen in and
You hide out and i wish i had money in here i don’t have it in here today i usually do but i believe it or not men they sell a sunscreen for me they do it just stay away from the pink and the brown bottles but keep turning down the aisles there and walmart wherever it is you shop and you’ll find some blue bottles it’s basically a an aftershave but it’s basically
A a a lotion ii type aftershave that you put on but it’s got i think thinking getting a couple different models but it’s got the either the the 15 or the 30 in it to protect your face so very good for your face of course good for your arms hands whatever i won’t show you my foot right now i’ve got a country foot right now because i cut grass with a shoe that only
Covered half my foot so i’ve got a white half and a brown half not a good idea but it was done but anyway that’s not what we’re asking here today main question can program for tack your limits caused these problems fever upset stomach headache overall yes and matter of fact they can cause many more and it’s kind of been a common knowledge of mine i think of you
Too that what every drug company says can be caused the side effects of their drugs you can bank on those you may not get all of them don’t get me wrong but once you start getting some of those you can bank on those and you can bank on writing another book on what they really caused to happen in your life so that’s basically it i’m so sorry that this person has
Been dealing with this but i’ll tell you this you’re not alone in it there’s a lot of us they were dealing with this same issue let me ask you do a few things for me right quick before we go number one how about give this show a thumbs up just find that thumbs up button right beneath this here give this show a thumbs up but it doesn’t mean that this show touched
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Transcribed from video
Can Tacrolimus/ Prograf Make You Feel Lousy? By Transplant Helper
